Chinese culture is a big river that flows endlessly, not dead vines, old trees, and crows along the river! Sit in the lecture hall of Yu Qiuyu's Chinese culture compulsory course, and taste the silent and majestic vitality of Chinese culture.
You see, the big tree in front of you, how tall and melodious.
When the wind came, it laughed.
When the rain comes, it welcomes it with open arms.
The frost came, stained its hair red, made it colorful, and why didn't it rejoice?!
It never seems to have bothered.
- Anon
If a person can always maintain a pure heart like a child, do things with an optimistic mood, treat others with a kind heart, and be bright and frank, his life must be much happier than others. --Romain Rolland
Last time I talked about many philosophers, thinkers, literati, and poets in ancient China, all of their life boiled down to diluting competition. It's not that they're pretending, they have no reason to pretend, they're writing alone, they're lyrical, they don't have any sense of performance, they really express a pursuit of the end point of Chinese culture.
On this point, I would like to say a few words about my own feelings, to illustrate how boring this kind of competition to compare others is, and how to dilute how competition can be so popular in Chinese life, which is equivalent to telling our young friends about our history.
Full Professor and Boss
As you all know, 30 years ago, I became the youngest president of the Chinese mainland university at that time, which was the Shanghai Theater Academy, which had many very famous actors. When I was dean, the college was in a very good situation, but I developed a lot of very new strategies, which made people a little bit out of touch. For example, when we evaluate the title or the professor or associate professor, we are very strict.
I remember that every time I commented on the professor, there would always be many, many letters of accusation on my desk, several associate professors accusing another associate professor, all kinds of suspicions, problematic sources of academic papers, abnormal relations with female students, or having said a few incorrect words, and so on. A closer look often reveals that the associate professors who are most likely to be competitors to professors are also writing to each other, and they don't leak any of them, and they don't work together against two people. If there were four competitors, he would have been one person who had brought down all three others, but all by letter, some by signature, and some by anonymous.
I am very interested in this phenomenon. To be sure, they had the power to write letters to the dean. I thought it was bad to write letters at the beginning, but the problem is that we can't cancel their right to comment on professors just by writing letters. Because the letters they wrote were probably true, I put them aside. I tell you, we ignore these letters, unless you have too big a thing, you can call the police, or ignore these letters, we still look at his academic achievements.
Comment, comment, evaluate, finally out. Well, there was a 60-year-old associate professor who was finally rated as a professor. The relationship between victory and defeat is such that in his teaching and research room, the other three associate professors have become his enemies, and he is always guarding against them. Those three associate professors all had their own students, and students could also become lecturers and teaching assistants. As a result, the 60-year-old who was rated as a professor became a loner. Reluctant to return to the classroom, he hurried to the classroom and left after teaching. Sometimes there is a long break in between, sometimes a ten-minute break in between, and sometimes a 20-minute break.
Where did he go during the 20-minute break? He would usually go to the gatehouse of our college, where there was a stove in winter, and there was a grandfather. Well, I will make a comparison, this concierge boss is the same as him, is also 60 years old, this concierge is not highly educated, there is no title, the salary is relatively low, but this concierge is too cute, he is always happy, his concierge is always crowded with all kinds of people, I remember that I was still very young, this concierge boss stood at the door every day.
Today there may be a struggle in the school again, or who is criticizing which teacher, the criticized teacher leaves the college at night, and when he comes home, he is always full of frustration, but after this old man hears the news, he always stands at the door, very happy to tell them to take care of your body, you are still looking very good, exercise well, or to a wronged teacher, this teacher, I like to secretly listen to your lessons when doing health work, your lectures are awesome, and so on, So often there will be this scene is full of frustration out of the school, but after meeting this is not the old man at the time, he is a concierge staff, all the people are happy, then the next morning when we go to work, the first person to meet him, he and the sunshine, so that we are full of confidence in the new day.
So compared to the concierge and the full professor who has nowhere to go, which person do you say has a better life? On the surface the full professor was a great success, and the old concierge was nothing, but I thought that the balance of life must have its own tilt, so when the concierge boss died, I attended his memorial service. You know that the principal of a school, even a professor, has passed away, and he may not necessarily go to the memorial service, but I attended his memorial service seriously, and when I delivered the memorial service, I said how much comfort his smile brought to the school, so I personally think this is a very remarkable person.
And the man who became a full professor? It wasn't really successful. In this comparison, everyone can understand the difference between success and unsuccessful that I said, you have to compare others, we don't want this kind of success, and the concierge boss, he did things well, what is his business? He was able to comfort people who came in and out every day and became all of our friends, so he was a success that I liked. Comparing others to this success in terms of authority, wealth, title, and reputation is not desirable, which is why my favorite inscription is kindness, health, and happiness, rather than success in the general sense.
There is a publisher in China named Mr. Gong Shuguang, and I think everyone in the publishing industry knows that he wrote a collection of essays, recalling the life in the small town when he was very young, so peaceful and so bitter, so warm, he hoped that I could take a look at it and write a few words for it. I love a passage he said when he was writing about these small town life:
Small towns are the force of the norm. The Spring and Autumn Dynasties are in order, and the agricultural affairs of the four hours are kept; the reincarnation of the nails is constant, and the life and old age are often eaten and died. Do not be proud of abundance, do not lose money and be depressed. The sour, sweet and bitter spicy of life, brewed into a jar of delicious sauce by the townspeople in the sun and rain in the countryside, whether it is a smooth place or a natural disaster, although the years are different, life has always been a simple and plain taste.
Spring tea is bitter and sweet, spicy wine is light and intoxicating, having a child is both joy and sorrow, and death is sad and blessed. The hustle and bustle of the world is indifferent, and the impermanent life is kept as usual. Day by day, year by year, generation by generation, say confused, the days of the town are really confused, say innocent, the days of the town are really innocent.
This is a passage written by Mr. Gong Shuguang, I can't help but feel a little emotional, I am also a person from the town, we have sadness and busyness in the face of the catastrophe, but in the end we all return to a kind of civilian ecology, and then in this civilian ecology, enjoy the taste that we feel is very good.
Such a life, I want to tell you, this is actually the most normal life of the Chinese people for a long time. We can be rich, we can develop, but in the end it is this quiet life that controls the core of our souls. This kind of life and this ecology has made Chinese culture live a long life, and it has also made our physical and mental health, which is a very important point. So the kindness, health, and happiness I mention to my students are all related to this kind of thinking.
If we consume our huge lives in boring expectations for the so-called success of quotation marks, without standards and without ends, this has nothing to do with the basic thinking of Chinese culture.